In a speech to be delivered Friday at a tech conference in Portland, Oregon, Wyden says surveillance agencies are able to use outdated court decisions to justify intercepting information that is private. His remarks were obtained in advance by The Associated Press.

The government has long been able to examine records that go through a third party, like a phone call or bank transfer, without the onerous process of obtaining a search warrant. That communication is labeled as a business record.

But Wyden, a Democrat, says the government needs to treat these communications more like private papers.